Barbecue & Cacao

When we decided to move our chocolate manufacturing operation into a more retail friendly place we sort of stumbled into a space in Old Town Tomball that happened to have room for a cafe.

That discovery got us to thinking.

Hmmmm

I’ve been referring to our new space as The Craftory 2.0 It is a fixer upper so it’s taking awhile okay.

Michelle, Chef Greg, and I got to kicking around some ideas for a menu. It really didn’t take very long to reach a conclusion. We’ve been making and eating barbecue our whole lives, and Old Town Tomball needs a barbecue joint. Having a real nice barbecue lunch at The Tejas Chocolate Craftory became the vision.

A proper menu always starts with the cooking equipment available to you, so like a good Texan should do, we bought a barbecue pit.

We present to you the steel offset smoker barbecue pit…

“The Black October”

98.7%

98.7 is my best guess on what percentage of people that we know enthusiastically said “Great Idea” upon hearing about our plans for The Craftory 2.0

1.29%

1.29 was the percentage of people that expressed mild confusion and asked why serve barbecue at a chocolate craftory.

Here’s the deal.

We make chocolate because we need something to do while we are waiting for the brisket to smoke.

.01%

.01 is the percentage of people who think our idea is stupid.

This person has since been stripped of their Texas Chocolate & Barbecue privileges and relocated to Oklahoma.

There is one in every crowd eh

When we get The Tejas Chocolate Craftory open you will be able to come and do the following:

eat chocolate

eat barbecue

eat food we think goes well with chocolate and/or barbecue

drink chocolate

drink craft beer

drink wine

see how we make chocolate

learn how cacao is produced

check out the barbecue pit

relax with your friends

Chocolate & Barbecue make for good companions and the comparisons are many.

Making chocolate takes a long time. Making barbecue takes a long time.

The number of styles of chocolate and barbecue in the world – 27 Bazillion. Approximately.

Like meats, cacao is roasted many different ways all over the globe. Some examples:

pan roasted over an open fire

convection oven

modified coffee roasters

drum roasters

my personal favorite – brick oven barbecue pit

Chocolate & Barbecue taste best with the right amount of seasoning and that is an individual thing

Earlier this year we did a pop up barbecue event in the front yard over at The Craftory 2.0. People came over for the barbecue and asked what’s the deal with the chocolate. People came over for the chocolate then decided to stay and eat some barbecue. We were dropping a little chocolate knowledge on people who haven’t given cacao a second thought. We served some barbecue to chocolate people that, bless their hearts, hadn’t had good barbecue previous.

Chocolate & Barbecue is a great pairing no matter how you slice it. Crafty companions indeed.

This is the best bbq in Harris County, and definitely up there against the best in Texas. They’re doing great things at Tejas. I just tried the brisket along with the green sauce…Tejas bbq is so good it doesn’t need sauce but their sauces are outstanding, so why not multiply the goodness? Anyhow, don’t miss out on the green sauce, it has a great chimichurri like flavor that pairs nicely with the brisket. I like to add both the mole bbq sauce and the green sauce…(along with the pickled red onions and pickles) for the ultimate experience. I love this place!